This is probably something a lot of blondes can relate to; you get your hair dyed a beautiful shade of blonde and a few weeks later you start to notice that no longer is your hair that lovely shade of blonde it once was but has become brassy with hints of yellow.

Now there are many ‘purple’ shampoos on the market, the tone correcting shampoos that are always bright purple in colour to try and correct it.

As I found my hair was becoming a more brassy/yellow/gingery colour than blonde I decided to give a ‘purple’ shampoo a go. John Frieda, ‘Sheer Blonde, colour renew’ was on offer in Superdrug at £6 for the Shampoo and Conditioner together, and so I decided to give it a try.

John Frieda ‘purple’ shampoo and conditioner

The Shampoo states that “with optical brightener and lavender, correcting formula counteracts unwanted yellow tones to neutralise brassiness and renew blonde colour.” There is only a small hint of a lavender smell to it, nevertheless the smell is a pleasant one and definitely not chemical- like.

It is slightly concerning putting a bright purple shampoo and conditioner on your hair, but after the first wash my hair certainly felt more conditioned than before but there was indeed no colour change.

The shampoo

After a few weeks of using the Sheer Blonde Shampoo and Conditioner there has been a small but noticeable change in my hair, unfortunately not enough of a change to see through photos but there is a less brassy and yellow tone to my hair. My hair does however feel quite dried out from using it, but this may be due to the fact that I have been probably over-using it.

My hair is due for a re-colour and this time I will use the John Frieda shampoo and conditioner twice a week to try and maintain the colour, but without drying out my hair.

I have noticed that the shampoo and conditioner is back to £5.89 a bottle in Superdrug and I am not entirely convinced at that price it is worth it.

For many years now I have dreamt of having long, blonde, Rapunzel-esqe hair, unfortunately I have never quite reached this dream. It has taken three years to grow my hair from a short bob into its current style which is just past my shoulders and is showing no signs of getting any longer.

The problem is my hair has never been fast to grow. I never really had hair until I was three years old and then it never reached a long length until I was about 8 years old. I have my hair regularly cut and I try to look after it, but it never seems to want to grow.

As my 21st birthday approached I decided that I was going to have my dream of long hair and so started researching into hair extensions. I cannot afford real ones and have seen celebrities such as The Only Way Is Essex’s Jessica Wright suffering with bald patches due to her hair extensions.

I decided on clip-in extensions, I knew I’d probably get bored of it and want short hair again and these seemed the most appropriate. I did not want real human hair clip-in extensions either, I do not like the idea of having someone else’s hair attached to my own having no idea where it came from.

Through reading reviews, I decided on Salon Confidential’s ‘volume wave’ clip-in extensions in Lightest Blonde. At £45 they are on the expensive side for synthetic extensions, but due to the reviews I decided that they were worth the risk.

The website states that they “are made from state of the art modifibre material. They look, move and feel just like real hair, but the bonus is you don’t have to do anything with them because they’re pre-styled for you” which seems like a bonus for me.

In the box you get 12 rows of extensions, which turned out to be far too much to fit in, but I’d much rather have too many than not enough.

Out of the box they seemed a bit too shiny, but after various amount of sprays and dry shampoo’s this shine seemed to have gone; although I don’t know what all this product is going to do to the continuing condition of the hair.

(Before and after applying dry shampoo and sprays)

I struggled to put them in myself, but after some help I had them all clipped in and I was rather impressed, the colour was a very good match to my own hair and I now had the long blonde Rapunzel hair that I’d been dreaming off; even if I did feel it looked a bit like Barbie’s.

I showed it off to my friends who said “I know it’s not real because last time I saw you your hair was short. If I didn’t know you though, I wouldn’t realise its fake.”

My natural hair length

With Salon Confidential Extensions

The back with Salon Confidential extensions

However, due to the fact that it is light blonde and synthetic, under the flash of a camera you can tell that it’s fake as it still shines a lot more than my natural hair, which lets it down.

I will only be wearing it on nights out and as long as no photos are taken it’s perfect. It doesn’t weigh down my head and looks almost as if it was my own hair. For the amount of hair you get it’s definitely good value for money, I just wish they could invent something that always looked natural without having to use human hair.

I never know whether I hate my naturally very pale skin because of my own opinion or that it seems to be the overall view in society today that young women should have a bit of a tan. Every television programme, every magazine and what seems the majority of young women in the street appear to have a tan even if it is minus 2 outside. I have tried on numerous occasions to get a nice, natural looking, fake tan. I can however name many times when this has gone wrong; I have become streaky or very unnaturally orange.

When someone asked me if I was feeling ill because I looked so pale I decided to do something about it and chose to give Dove Summer glow in fair to medium skin a go. At £4.99 it is in the mid-level price for a gradual tanner, but if it gives me a nice glow and people don’t think I’m ill anymore it is worth it.

It is a gradual self-tanner so the more you use it the more tanned you become. My first impression was that it smells nice, it has a nice somewhat fruity smell not like the off putting biscuity smell that fake tan has. I exfoliated and used a fake tan mit to apply the lotion to try and avoid that streaky look.

The next day I noticed I was looking considerably more tanned to what I did before. No more looking ill.

I liked the result so much that throughout the week I kept applying more and more until I realised that I looked so unnatural, patchy and dirty so I ended up scrubbing my skin so hard, which just resulted in making me look like there was something terribly wrong with my skin.

I asked a friend who is not as naturally pale as me to give it a go. At first glance she had a nice glow, however close up, especially across her neck it was incredibly patchy.

After I stopped applying the lotion it soon wore off and I was back to my pale self. If you use it for special occasions, exfoliate, use a fake tan mit and don’t go crazy with it, it works and you will have a nice glow. However if you want a darker, year round tan I wouldn’t recommend it.

I am one of those people who is a sucker for buying any makeup/hair products that say that they do something new. Any new shampoo that comes out claiming to make your hair straight, frizz free, shiny or whatever, I’m down there paying the usual stupid price for it. I’ve lost count of the amount of 3/4 full bottles I have with stuff that I was expecting miracles from and I’ve been left dissappointed.

The contents of one of my make-up bags

I’m the same with makeup. Mascara that claims to make your eyelashes look like your wearing 30 pairs of false eyelashes, I’ll buy it or foundation that magically matches to the colour of your skin, except when you use it you look like you’ve just rubbed a wotsit in lines down your face. I’ll buy it.

When I first heard about BB cream, (Blemish Barm) a cream that is a moisturiser, concealer, sun protection, foundation and whatever else in one I thought yes I’ll try that. However I refused to pay the £30 that some where selling for and opted for a cheaper brand.

I opted for Boots’ Number 17 BB Blemish Barm in Light for £6.99. Compared to foundations that I use this about in the middle price range. The Barm comes out like a foundation but feels like a moisturiser on. It doesn’t last as long as foundation but does wonderful things to my skin, doesn’t dry it out or cause spots.

I’m a BB cream converter, it actually works.

However, nearly every other product I’ve bought isn’t as good as it says. Mascara never looks like it does on models, i look like I stuck a spider to my eyes in most cases. No hair product has made my hair miraculously straight without the use of straighteners later and no tanning product has ever gone properly right with me, I usually look like I haven’t washed for about a month.